Snowstalker
|name = Snowstalker |kingdom = Animalia |phylum = Chordata |class = Mammalia |order = Carnivora |familia = Mustelidae}} The '''snowstalker' is a large predatory mustelid native to the North European Ice of 5 million AD. It is an apex predator which preys on large animals such as shagrats. Evolution , and has changed little.]] The snowstalker is descended from the wolverine (Gulo gulo), the largest of the mustelids, which were already vicious predators in the Human era, though they were not apex predators. As a generalist scavenger and predator which would eat anything it could scavenge or kill, the wolverine was able to survive the Human era mass extinction and adapt to fill the niches of extinct predators such as wolves and bears. With the coming of the ice age, the wolverine evolved further, developing thick, warm, white fur for insulation and for camouflage, as well as hairy soles for a better grip. The snowstalker's evolution of sabre-teeth is an example of convergent evolution, as the feature had previously evolved in the sabre-toothed cats. The snowstalker is the only known example of a true placental mammal other than a feliform evolving sabre teeth. Biology As far as its basic physiology goes, the snowstalker has barely changed compared to its ancestor. It is larger and heavier than the wolverine, measuring around 4' in length and almost 2' in height, and weighing up to 75 lbs (but it is still smaller than prey items such as shagrats and gannetwhales), and its canines have developed into a pair of 6'' sabre teeth. It has powerful jaws, with a bite force of 2000 pounds psi or 1 tonne (1,000 kilograms). They are somewhat sexually dimorphic: males are larger than females. The snowstalker's fur is white, providing it with camouflage in blizzards and winter storms, and is thick and warm, insulating it from the cold. The soles of their feet are also covered in hair, to insulate them from the cold of the ground, and to help their grip on slippery ice. Behaviour When they are not breeding or looking after cubs, snowstalkers are solitary and territorial, but because of the thin populations of prey, the territory of a single snowstalker may cover several square miles. They ferociously defend their kills from any other snowstalkers of the same gender that approach. Female snowstalkers do not hold territory of their own, but wander through the territories of males. They will sometimes allow a dominant male to do hunting for them, conserving their own energy, as males will allow females to eat from their kills in return for mating rights. They make their dens in shallow caves, which is usually the only shelter available on the tundra. Because of the massive distances between territories, snowstalkers mate only infrequently. To prevent inbreeding and genetic weakness, the female snowstalker enters estrus every 21 days, and once she mates, her fertilised eggs are held in suspension inside her. Eventually, after multiple matings, the embryos are implanted into her womb, and as the winter ends and the summer thaw begins, she will give birth to a litter of cubs born of many different fathers. Female snowstalkers take care of their cubs, travelling massive distances to find food for them, and, to teach them to hunt, mothers will chase prey animals back to their den for them to "train" on. If they struggle too much, the mother will demonstrate by injuring or outright killing the prey. Mothers also regurgitate food for very young cubs. .]] Because big animals are rare on the tundra, snowstalkers will follow their prey for days, and have evolved a cautious hunting strategy. Using its white coat to blend in with the snow, especially during a blizzard, the snowstalker will ambush and injure, but not kill, its chosen prey item. Instead of risking injury by trying to finish the prey off, the snowstalker will simply trail its wounded victim until it bleeds to death. During the summer, when boggy greenery is flourishing, its white coat puts it at a disadvantage, though it may try to camouflage against rocky terrain or patches of snow. Snowstalkers always hunt alone. Snowstalker vocalisations are primarily roars and growls, not too dissimilar to Human era big cats such as tigers or leopards. Ecology The snowstalker's main prey item is the shagrat, giant rodents which wander the tundra in herds. When in groups, shagrats are well-defended against predators by their numbers, and will bunch up together, bare their teeth, and hiss when they feel threatened, but snowstalkers often pick off lost, injured, young, or elderly individuals. In coastal regions, they may try to attack gannetwhales or their eggs, but are often repelled by the long beaks of the gannetwhales, or by their special defense: when threatened, gannetwhales will regurgitate partially-digested fish and squid, which is particularly noxious to the sensitive nose of a predator like the snowstalkers. Even with these defenses, gannetwhales usually roost on remote islands, and are therefore only at risk when cold winters create ice bridges. Extinction When the ice age ends and the world warms up, the snowstalker is one of the animals least able to adapt, and quickly goes extinct during the 5 million AD mass extinction. Appearances In the documentary The episode "Return of the Ice" mainly follows a mother snowstalker as she tries to find food for her two cubs. She succesfully attacks a shagrat, the corpse of which she drags back to her lair, but is unable to steal any eggs from a nesting flock of gannetwhales, which repel her by regurgitating food. Later, she chases a live shagrat back to her den, so that her cubs can practice hunting, in the hope that they will survive their first ice age winter. In the manga The first story in the manga, "North European Icefield," also follows a mother snowstalker and her single cub, which she is teaching to hunt. After unsuccesfully attacking a young gannetwhale, they manage to bring down a shagrat, but the mother is injured, and when they return to their den they find themselves evicted by a rival snowstalker. The next hunt goes badly wrong: the mother is again injured, and cannot escape from a sudden avalanche, which kills her, leaving her cub to continue the hunt alone. It survives, and the next year, it returns to its old den as an adult and chases away the rival snowstalker, shattering its teeth and reclaiming its home. In the animated series Snowstalkers appear in "De-Tour de France," "Scared Safe," and "Snowstalker in a Strange Land". List of appearances *''The Future is Wild'' **1x01. Welcome to the Future **1x02. Return of the Ice **''The Future Is Wild'' (US) *''The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future'' *''The Future is Wild'' manga **01. North European Icefield *''The Future Is Wild'' animated series **1x12. De-Tour de France **1x20. Scared Safe **1x26. Snowstalker in a Strange Land *''The Future Is Wild: The Living Book'' Notes *The snowstalker is very similar to the bardelot, a tundra-dwelling sabre-toothed giant rodent, from Dougal Dixon's After Man: A Zoology of the Future. *Since the snowstalker is essentially only a larger, more robust wolverine with sabre teeth and white fur, it is possible to get a good idea of what a real snowstalker would look like based on images of albino wolverines, such as the two on the right. *Giant predatory mustelids existed in North America and Africa during the Miocene period, the most famous of which were Ekorus and Megalictis. Giant mustelids are believed to have been the top predators in these regions before the ascendancy of big cats. Gallery Documentary= FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_in_blizzard.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_pouncing.png FIW 1x2 Snowstalker kill.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_returning.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_cubs.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_cubs_fighting.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_on_rocks.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_roaring.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_and_gannetwhales.png FIW 1x2 Young snowstalkers learning.png FIW 1x2 Mother snowstalker watching.png FIW_1x2_Snowstalker_learning_to_hunt.jpg FIW 1x2 Shagrat surrounded.png FIW 1x2 Shagrat eaten.png |-|Promotional= Snowstalker-600px.jpg Gannetwhale and snowstalker.jpg 5mio.png 5Mio_North_European_Ice.jpg |-|Models= Snowstalker cropped.png Snowstalker statue 2.png Snowstalker statue 3.png Snowstalker statue.png Gannetwhale and snowstalker DE.jpg In other languages References Navigation Category:Animals Category:Mammals Category:Mustelids Category:Organisms of 5 million AD Category:Organisms of Europe Category:Organisms of the North European Ice Category:5 million AD